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'Will Spurs want to stretch themselves?'

After finishing eighth in the Premier League last season Tottenham have pushed on this term and in their battle for fourth place have already surpassed their points tally from last season.

Defeat at Sunderland in their last League fixture may have been a blow but with Liverpool and Aston Villa faltering, Spurs' fate remains in their own hands.

However their final six fixtures probably represent the toughest end-of-season run-in in the League. As well as hosting Arsenal on Wednesday night they welcome Chelsea on Saturday evening before travelling to Old Trafford. They return to Manchester to take on City on May 5 and also have relegation-threatened Bolton and Burnley to contend with.

Their fans were left disappointed on Sunday afternoon following an extra-time defeat in the FA Cup Semi-Final to Portsmouth and manager Harry Redknapp has described the North London derby as the ideal game to follow the weekend's defeat.

Ahead of the clash Arsenal.com caught up with Ben Pearce from the Tottenham Journal to get a view from the opposite end of Seven Sisters Road.

FOCUS - THE STORY SO FAR

THE STORY SO FAR - RACE FOR FOURTH"The likelihood is that Spurs will be in the race for fourth when they go to Manchester City in the last week of the season. That isn't a dreadful scenario, they beat City 3-0 at White Hart Lane in December and if you have got what will be like a one-game play-off for the Champions League spot they would probably take that at this stage. Their next three games are very difficult but Man City have also got some difficult games. They have the Manchester derby this weekend and a trip to Arsenal too. So if Spurs can get points from their next few games and go to the City of Manchester Stadium with it all to play they could possibly put it into their own hands for the final game of the season."

FOCUS - REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL"If you look back to the start of the season there were probably five teams expected to fight for fourth place. So if you say with five games to go Spurs are in possibly a two-horse race for that place, then I think there is every chance they could get it and it could well come down to that fixture in Manchester in a few weeks time."

FOCUS - CAUSE FOR CONCERN

CAUSE FOR CONCERN"The FA Cup Semi-Final defeat to Portsmouth in extra time at the weekend and the Premier League game before that [a 3-1 defeat in Sunderland] were really big. Had they won at Sunderland it would have been a really big result and would possibly have given Spurs a bit more belief and momentum going into the Cup Semi-Final. You certainly don't want to be going into this run of games on the back of two defeats. They have certainly made it more difficult for themselves than they needed to but injuries have definitely been a mitigating factor."

FOCUS - MAN OF THE MOMENT

KEY PLAYERS"Aaron Lennon isn't that far from fitness now but most people would be surprised if he started against Arsenal. Roman Pavlyuchenko has been superb for a couple of months and Gareth Bale has probably been their best player since the turn of the year. That is incredible considering people expected him to leave in the winter, if not last summer. Now he is turning into the player Spurs signed from Southampton a couple of years ago."

FOCUS - THE ONE TO WATCH

THE ONES TO WATCH"Peter Crouch is likely to go to the World Cup for England, he is useful in both areas due to his height. Jermain Defoe has also been in all the recent England squads and those two have played consistently together and know each other very well."

FOCUS - TALKING TACTICS

TALKING TACTICS"A lot of the game will depend on how much Spurs really want to win the game. If you look back to the game at Emirates Stadium earlier in the season I don't think Spurs fans were very happy. There was a lot of talk about matching Arsenal but they went out and played 4-5-1 and the aim looked to be to get a draw. It backfired and they lost 3-0 and probably deservedly so. Arsenal are good at breaking and can create chances very quickly. So the question will be how much do Spurs want to stretch themselves - do they really want to go for three points at home or do they think a point against one of the top three wouldn't be a bad result? We won't really know until we see the teamsheet."

Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

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